For thousands of years people have been conscious of the need for skin care for various reasons, including cleanliness, comfort, beauty, and protection against the sun. Research has confirmed the benefits of proper skin care through the use of products that contain anti-aging ingredients, primarily anti-oxidants and sunscreens.
Consumers, both men and women regardless of age, are particularly interested in products that contain anti-aging, anti-oxidant topical creams and lotions that beautify and protect the skin from free radicals and stress oxidation. Anti-oxidants and sunscreens are the skin's first defense in fighting free radicals that are in the form of ionic particles that persist in the atmosphere. Free radicals have the ability to permeate the skin and lungs thereby damaging skin cells/DNA.
Since world population grows exponentially, there is every indication that the demand for skin care products that both beautify and protect the skin will continue to grow. No one can dispute the fact that we live in a society that admires beauty. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent annually in the global beauty industry, and as the consumer economic base grows in China, India and other countries throughout the world, the demand for skin care products will increase exponentially.
As we learn more about the aging process, coenzyme Q10 ranks as one of the most, if not the most, powerful and effective topical anti-oxidants when used at a percentage level that is known to be effective to protect the skin against free radicals. The beauty industry has been unable to fully utilize CoQ10 because it is not white and not color-stable. Consumers have a strong preference for white, color-stable products, but when CoQ10 is used at an effective percentage level in an aqueous emulsion product, it degrades the formulation into various shades of orange or brown. Such an unstable product is commercially unacceptable because it is perceived to be impure or contaminated.
Vanillin is another natural, powerful and effective anti-aging, antioxidant ingredient that is used in the pharmaceutical and beauty industry. Vanillin has also been recognized as a tanning agent for the skin. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,714,609 and 7,935,331. But, similarly as with CoQ10, the industry has been unable to fully utilize vanillin due to the instability of its color in aqueous emulsion products. Although vanillin is naturally white in color it quickly degrades into various shades of brown when used in aqueous emulsion products. Vanillin's optimum benefits cannot be fully realized until it is available in a white, color-stable emulsion product.
There is an urgent need for preserving the whiteness of products containing CoQ10 and vanillin. White is the commercially preferred color for any product used on the face and body. To optimize the use of these two natural, powerful, as effective anti-aging, antioxidant ingredients, it is imperative that products containing CoQ10 and vanillin be white in color and remain white throughout the shelf life of the product.
The utilization of these two powerful and effective antioxidant ingredients can be enormously effective in anti-aging and sun and sunless tanning products, thereby eliminating the need to overexpose ones skin in the sun, while creating an antioxidant barrier that can will help prevent skin cancer caused by free radicals that permeate and damage the skin (DNA).